American Family Insurance is dedicated to inspiring, protecting, and restoring the most valuable things our customers will ever own: their dreams. It's more than our point of view; it's our company mission, and we seek earnest, resonant ways to show our commitment to the dreams of consumers. As a regional company competing in a crowded marketplace against national brands with deeper pockets, earnest is not only part of our brand's personality: it's one of the few remaining paths to consumers that doesn't get drowned out by our competitors.
Video (viewed both on TV and in various online video channels) is one of those paths. AmFam uses video to connect consumers to our brand and help them understand the role we can play in their own dream pursuit – by showing them. A key objective with our 2015 "Signs of Support" campaign was to use online video to translate our dream support message down to a personal level and generate brand engagement with consumers.
American Family Insurance learned, through in-depth consumer research, that dreamers often don't pursue their dreams because they don't feel the support or encouragement of their friends and family. The brand used this insight as the foundation to build an engaging, personal campaign that would run throughout the second half of 2015.
In our Signs of Support campaign, AmFam used video to showcase how working hard can help you achieve your dreams. AmFam knows that everyday dreamers need support and encouragement, so we enlisted two of our high profile brand ambassadors, Kevin Durant and JJ Watt, to give those everyday dreamers a surprise boost of support. These videos inspired and connected with social media users by showing the human side of two professional athletes.
Our brand ambassadors were sent on a mission to help encourage dreamers with signs of support. JJ and KD showed up wherever those dreamers were, holding up signs and cheering them on. Whether it was JJ running alongside Rusty, who was training for a marathon, or Kevin Durant showing up at a youth basketball practice, they spent time thanking their fans for all they do and encouraging them to never give up on their own dreams. The unique interaction between the professional athletes and the dreamers produced an inspiring 60-second TV spot. This video content was also uniquely cut and optimized to use across a variety of online channels.
These shorter 6-, 15- and 30-second videos were customized for each of the different social platforms and their audiences. Spots were used in full episode players, but the shorter videos were also shown across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to expand the audience and to captivate dreamers everywhere. Videos in the social platforms were used to get people talking about their own dreams and to encourage consumers to support the everyday dreamers in their own lives.
Having a dream is easy, but doing something to achieve that dream is hard work. American Family Insurance knows that everyone's dream needs a champion – which is why these videos are so powerful.
The Signs of Support videos got the brand noticed by fellow dreamers and drove major social brand engagement.
